In a letter sent from Julia Tutwiler in Dothan, Alabama to Frank S. White in Birmingham, Alabama, Tutwiler pushed for key issues such as the end to convict leasing, the re-establishment of night school education, and the separation of minor offenders and hardened criminals.

[3] Tutwiler's letter cites major controversies during her time such as the Banner Mining Incident of 1911, where 125 of the 128 dead miners were convicts, predominately guilty of minor offenses, leased by state prisons.

[4] Tutwiler additionally suggested medical and psychological treatment for convicts such as rehabilitation for drug addicts, sanitation, and nurses to care for dying inmates who lack families to visit them.

[7] The Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women housed 992 inmates in 2003, when U.S. District Judge Myron Herbert Thompson found that its overcrowded, underfunded conditions were so poor that they violated the U.S.

[8] In 2012, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a nonprofit that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners, filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice saying that "[i]n interviews with more than 50 women...EJI uncovered evidence of frequent and severe officer-on-inmate sexual violence.

"[9] In May 2013, Tutwiler ranked as one of the ten worst prisons in the United States, based on reporting in Mother Jones magazine.

[10] On January 17, 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report of their findings of their investigation into the allegations of ongoing sexual abuse of inmates by prison guards.